It’s been more than a year since the explosion aboard the Deep Water Horizon oil rig that led to the deaths of 11 workers and millions of barrels of oil being spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the widows of those killed on the Horizon are pushing for a new law that would allow them to sue for pain and suffering. 

The Senate Commerce Committee approved the bill on Wednesday. It would change long-standing Maritime laws that limit the liability in the case of death on the high seas.

A new report released this week by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) warns that the "oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico poses... indirect threats to seafood safety." State and federal officials, however, say they are aggressively testing seafood from the Gulf Coast in order to protect the public from any potential health risks from the oil that gushed continuously into the water for nearly three months. With these conflicting messages, how difficult will it be for the Gulf's seafood industry to get back on its feet?

BP has already paid out more than $300 million to businesses and individuals affected by the oil, which started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico on Apirl 20, but the company's claims system has been criticized by business owners who say they have had to deal with multiple adjusters. Attorney Kenneth Feinberg was hired by BP to serve as administrator of its $20 billion compensation fund and he will begin processing claims for victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill later this month.

BP has pledged to give $20 billion in compensation to victims of the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil gusher. So far, $300 million has been distributed, but many are concerned that some portion of this money has gone to people scamming the system.

Attempts to permanently seal the ruptured BP oil rig are now well underway, but major concerns about the gusher's cleanup continue to swirl around the Gulf Coast. 

KUHF reporter Melissa Galvez took to the streets of Houston, Texas, and asked residents if the BP oil disaster changed the way they consume gas. She covered this for our friends Transportation Nation. The majority of responses she got was — no. She brings us voices of the people she talked to.

We also want to hear from you. Have you changed the way you think about and consume gas, energy, and how you travel, since the BP oil disaster?

Oil may have stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, but the longterm economic damage caused by the BP catastrophe is only beginning to be seen. Workers along the along the Gulf Coast are not the only ones taking a hit. Columnist for The New York Times, Dan Barry found that the oil gusher will have far reaching consequences. He says it will impact everyone from the fishermen who mine the oyster beds in Louisiana to the Minnesota businessmen who rely on crushed oyster shells to be used as poultry feed.

On Capitol Hill this week, Democratic lawmakers will make a last-ditch attempt to get the financial regulations bill passed before heading into mid-term elections. Democratic Senators are also struggling to extend unemployment benefits to the nation's jobless, but have yet to secure enough votes to avoid a Republican filibuster. And while the Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, it is likely Republicans will delay Tuesday's vote until next week.

Outside the beltway, this week marks the start of earnings season. Investors and economics will be watching closely to see if the economy is on the road to recovery or headed for a double-dip recession.

On Tuesday, oil hit the coast of Texas, officially reaching every state along the Gulf of Mexico. About five gallons of oil were found near Galveston, Tex. appearing in the form of small tar balls.  According to state Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, tar balls are not uncommon in Texas; they hear about ten reports of them a year. That same office also confirmed that the oil has come from the BP Deepwater Horizon leak, and said it has most likely reached Texas by a boat or vessel rather than ocean currents.

John Francis knows about the desire to act after an oil spill. In 1971, a major oil spill in the San Francisco Bay led him to make radical changes in his life. He ultimately decided to stop driving and start walking... everywhere.

After countless arguments with people, in which he had to defend his decision to boycott the use of motorized vehicles, Francis made another life-altering change — he stopped speaking. But now he has a lot to say, and gives a talk today at the TEDX Oil Spill conference, where leading thinkers will tackle questions raised by the disasterous spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Perhaps the only disaster equal in magnitude to the oil spill in the Gulf is the public relations disaster BP has on its hands for causing the spill. After weeks of embarrassing gaffes from BP executives, namely CEO Tony Hayward, BP is struggling to regain its footing. With the announcement that the maladroit Hayward is stepping away from overseeing daily operations related to the spill, BP is launching a media blitz in an attempt to mend their public image.

The centerpiece of that PR campaign is Darryl Willis. Willis is BP's vice president for resources who is now overseeing BP's claims process in the Gulf coast. He's also the star of a new ad campaign that seeks to portray him and the company as more caring and sincere than the steely Hayward. Part of the selling point of that strategy is the fact that Willis is a Louisiana native. 

Since the start of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, neither BP nor politicians nor the smartest engineers and technicians in America have been able to cap the well and contain the damage.

Some Americans say we are looking to the wrong people for answers, and should instead be directing our requests to a higher power.

BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster hits the two month mark this weekend. Since April 20, oil has been gushing into the Gulf, wreaking havoc on the thousands who make a living from those waters. Natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, leave residents devastated but able to begin repair once the crisis passes. The current nightmare has lasted two months, and the oil already in the Gulf will cause longterm environmental damage even once the well is capped. What kind of toll do these unknowns take on people's mental health?

In the wake of the BP oil disaster, the relationship between big corporations and the U.S. government has become more than an academic curiosity.  It sometimes seems that the two are so entwined that major corporations, such as BP, have more influence over the government than vice versa. Even before this most recent disaster, however, the U.S. has had a long history of tension between big corporations and the nation's government.

In 1979, an explosion on the Ixtoc 1 oil platform caused the world's worst accidental oil spill 50 miles off Mexico's Gulf Coast. 140 million gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf. It took more than nine months to cap the leak. The BBC has launched a series, "Oil and Water" in which they will explore the impacts of an oil-based economy in various locations around the world. As a part of the series, BBC reporters traveled to Mexico's beaches only to find the effects of the Ixtoc spill are still being felt today, more than thirty years after the explosion.

BP and the Gulf oil crisis are expected to be at the forefront of the news once again this week. President Obama will visit Alabama, Mississippi and Florida today and tomorrow, and address the nation when he gets back to Washington on Tuesday. 

BP's top executives will face Congressional hearings, including BP America chief Lamar McKay. Other oil industry executives – from Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and Conoco – are scheduled to sit before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday. The other oil companies are expected to try to distance themselves from BP by saying that this incident was preventable and that something like this would never happen on their watch.